Henry Hyde, R.I.P

The Conservative Movement has lost an Honorable Man, the Right to Life Movement has lost a Champion.

Henry Hyde, long-time Republican Congressman from the suburbs of Chicago, passed away this morning at the age of 83. He was honored by President Bush with the Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this month.

Here's a part, taken from the Corner, of National Review's editorial on the event and Hyde's legacy to the Right to Life Movement.

He will be most remembered for the Hyde Amendment. First passed in 1976, when Hyde was new to Washington, it bans the public funding of abortions though Medicaid. The year before it passed, the federal government had financed 300,000 abortions for low-income women. Afterward, this number dropped essentially to zero — the women either found another way to pay for their abortions or chose life for their unborn children. The National Right to Life Committee has estimated, conservatively, that the Hyde Amendment has prevented at least one million abortions. That’s one million Americans who are alive today because of Henry Hyde.

The Hyde Amendment has proven remarkably durable, undergoing only one important revision. In 1993, Congress added rape and incest exceptions to the life-of-the-mother clause that had been in place from the start. It is without question the most important piece of pro-life legislation ever to pass Congress.

Liberals will forever loathe him for being the "Torquemada" of the Clinton Impeachment. History will likely look more kindly on the man.

As a child born post-Roe; thank you Mr. Hyde for all that you did. Rest in Peace.